Cards are ordinarily provided to players in casino table card games directly from a deck held in the dealer's hands, from a dealing shoe or from a shuffler. The original dealing shoes were little more than trays that supported the deck(s) of cards and allowed the dealer to remove the front card (with its front facing the table to hide the rank of the card) and deliver it to a player. Over the years, both stylistic and functional changes have been made to dealing shoes, which have been used for blackjack, poker, baccarat and other casino table card games.
Newer gaming systems enable play of live table games with electronic wagering interfaces. For purposes of this disclosure, a “semi-automatic gaming system” is a system that enables play of a live game of chance using physical game pieces such as cards, dice and other structures capable of randomly determining game outcome. Such systems include a physical game play surface, a game controller and multiple electronic player interfaces that enable at least credit wagering and preferably the input of game play decisions. The game controller is capable of determining game outcomes. These gaming systems can include a card delivery shoe or a shuffler with card-reading capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,779,546 to Meissner et al. describes a method and apparatus for monitoring live card games. An automated dealing shoe dispenses each of the cards and recognizes each of the cards as each of the cards is dispensed. Player stations are also included. Each player station enables a player to enter a bet, request that a card be dispensed or not dispensed, and to convert each bet into a win or a loss based upon the cards that are dispensed by the automated dealing shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,012 to McCrea, Jr., discloses a secure game table system for monitoring each hand in a progressive live card game. The secure game table system comprises: a gaming table surface, a shoe for holding cards, the shoe having a card reader, the card reader issuing a signal corresponding at least to the value and suit for each card. The system includes a game bet sensor located near each of a plurality of player positions for sensing the presence of a game bet, when the presence of the game bet is sensed, the game bet sensor issues a signal corresponding to that presence. A plurality of card sensors is located near each of the plurality of player positions and a dealer position, the card sensor issuing a signal when a card in a hand is received at a card sensor of the plurality of card sensors. The system also includes a game controller, the game controller capable of issuing a signal when a card is delivered to the wrong position on the table.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,301 to Hill describes a dealing shoe that has a card scanner that scans indicia on a playing card as the card moves along and out of a chute by manual direction by the dealer in the normal fashion.
Systems of the Hill Patent record the rank and suit of scanned cards being removed from the shoe. Discrepancies between the read cards and actual cards dispensed can be manually identified. A record of the number and value of cards remaining in the shoe is also maintained. The shoe of Hill has a user input that allows the user to input a “burn” command to burn (i.e., discard) cards prior to dealing.
Each of the references identified in the Background and the remainder of the specification, including the Cross-Reference to Related Applications section, is incorporated herein by reference in their entirety as part of the enabling disclosure for such elements as apparatus, methods, hardware and software.